Need for a media ethics committee in Pakistan?

A few recent incidents involving television anchors have shown us that currently Pakistan heavily lacks in media ethics and morality. Of course not all tv shows/hosts are like that. However, there is apparently no check or limit to what a tv network might consider appropriate. The result is the likes of Maya Khan and shows like Thori See Bewafai where moral judgement is rampant and personal privacy often breached without care.

Now, we did see massive social media outrage (through facebook, twitter, blogs etc) against these shows, especially in the case of Maya Khan, and we did see Maya Khan being sacked and Shamoon Abbasi quitting Thori See Bewafai as a consequence.

However, I don't think social media outrage should be the appropriate means to get these TV shows stopped or appropriate action being taken. Instead, this should be the task of some independent Media Ethics Committee, which should be evaluating these shows/hosts and taking the necessary actions.

Before I begin, I must admit, I am writing this post with little to no research. As far as I am aware no such ethics committee exists. Such a committee might already be existing. However, even if it does, it must be rather useless since I didn't really hear anything involving such a committee in any of the recent cases. Also I must admit, I have not seen any full episode of either the show by Maya Khan or Shamoon Abbasi, and most my information regarding them comes from either social media outcry or through small clips of the shows. Hence, just as a disclaimer, nothing I say should be taken as fact, but rather just as an opinion.

First, here is why I think social media outcry shouldn't be the sole judge of ethics of Pakistani television and shows:

• Tv shows/anchors/hosts with in-ethical and inappropriate could be many. Social media outcry can be used every now and then for the worse of them, but cannot realistically be used for everyone of them. For one, there is a potential "social media outrage fatigue" where people could just become tired of constantly forwarding outrage posts (assuming unethical media instances happen often enough). And then there is also the point that if used often enough, it might just loose its "power" or influence.
  
  
• What I am more afraid is that social media outrage by us might become a witch-hunt for hunting and tracking down such tv shows and hosts who we deem have violated our basic ethical and moral codes. Now in a way it is certainly good that it will serve as a deterrent for future such ethically sub-standard shows. But there is also the possibility that with such a witch-hunt might cross boundaries and might pass judgments too harshly or at the wrong person. In Maya Khan's case there are apparently cases where people in an act of vengeance went about snooping into Maya's personal life in an attempt to embarrass her. (I found out about it through this tribune blog post). I would put that under crossing the line. Also Shamoon Abbasi's message did make me wonder about who was really responsible for the content of the show and who should really be blamed. If there was independent committee that had access to information we don't, it might be able to judge better.

Now an ethics committee needs to exist to take the responsibility away from the social media to take notice and charge journalists and tv show hosts appropriately. Social media outrage will and should still exist alongside that committee, but in this new situation it will work to point out cases the committee missed rather than being the media police itself. 

For the committee to be successful it has to have the following characteristics:

• It needs to be independent of all media and tv channels. Ideally it could be organized and run under the government but without any influence or pressure from the government.
  
  
• It has be secular! The committee has to judge each action of the media from a pure ethical and moral point-of-view independent of religion. This point cannot be stressed enough. Without this, we might as well not have an ethics committee.
  
  
• The committee should be comprised of journalists/bloggers whose integrity is reliable. Now assigning appropriate people to the committee is actually the problematic part and I have no solutions. Ideally, it should have both a mix of liberal and conservative people who have known to be critical objectively and have no political affiliations or religious bias.
  
  
• The committee should have power to force a channel to stop an inappropriate TV show, assuming the committee is convinced that such an action is required. Or the committee should have the power to fine channels over such content. Of course there is this major risk that the committee will abuse the power or the government might influence it to the power, but that is where I am hoping social media outrage will come into play: to keep the committee in check.
  

In addition to the committee, strict ethical and moral policies and guidelines could be published by the government or by the committee itself. This way a decision/action by the committee can be done in a more objective way. Again I do not personally know if such policies already exist. I can only imagine they do not (or at least that they are not enforced).

All in all, this social media outrage, which I personally think has worked amazing well so far, cannot be the permanent long term solution. There has to be a better way and we need to find that better solution.